Thursday, May 15, 2025

Book: Biden Cabinet members worried about his capacity

In the last year of Joe Biden's presidency, some members of his Cabinet lacked confidence the president could be relied on to respond to a crisis in the middle of the night, CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson write in their new book, "Original Sin." CNN on Wednesday first reported that revelation from the book, which also describes how Biden's inner circle shielded him from several Cabinet members "for months" at a time in 2023 and 2024.

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... Why it matters: The authors' reporting shows that even as the White House was moving to assure the public and the media of Biden's fitness, top administration officials were worried about his decline in the final years of his presidency.

The book is based on more than 200 interviews, mostly with Democratic insiders, almost all of which occurred after the 2024 election.

Driving the news: Several Cabinet secretaries told the authors that they frequently were boxed out from access to Biden in 2023 and 2024, when the 81-year-old president was running for re-election.

- - - One Cabinet secretary said Biden's top aides "shielded him in every meeting." From October 2023 on, "the Cabinet was kept at bay," the secretary said.

- - - "For months, we didn't have access to him. There was clearly a deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few people as necessary," the Cabinet secretary told the authors.

- - - "At one rare meeting during that time," the Cabinet secretary "was shocked by how the president was acting. He seemed 'disoriented' and 'out of it,' his mouth agape," according to the book.

- - - The secretary added that Biden's staff wanted to keep him happy and shielded him from bad news.

- - - "The staff did him wrong," the Cabinet member said. "If you were with him every day and you knew this was a problem, why didn't you go to him and say something?"

A second Cabinet secretary told the authors: ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-15 12:50 AM

You don't say ...

#2 | Posted by Bluewaffles at 2025-05-15 12:52 AM

@#2

I don't say.

But I do provide a link and quote.

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-15 12:56 AM

Joe Biden appeared on a TV show recently (I don't watch TV), but from what I read, he thinks he would have been beaten Dotard Trumpf last year if he wasn't eased out for the younger Kamala Harris. Biden pointed to the winning 2020 numbers as his reasoning, but not on the losing 2024 numbers. Again, the status quo leader won't admit that from 2020 to 2024 the Democrats lost 6,265,888 votes because they supported the unpopular Israeli onslaught on Gaza that took place every single day of 2024.

For the younger folks, Hubert Humphrey's 1968 Democratic ticket also lost millions of voters they had in 1964 because of their support for the unpopular Saigon regime, as well as sending our boys to fight and die in Vietnam.

Like at the 1968 DNC convention in Chicago, antiwar Democrats (and Arab-Americans) were also shunned at the 2024 DNC convention in the same city. However in 1976, antiwar activist and former Marine Ron Kovic spoke at the DNC Convention in Madison Square Garden, the year Jimmy Carter became President.

Link: abcnews.go.com

#4 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-05-15 02:13 AM

@#4 ... Joe Biden appeared on a TV show recently (I don't watch TV), but from what I read, he thinks he would have been beaten Dotard Trumpf last year if he wasn't eased out for the younger Kamala Harris. Biden pointed to the winning 2020 numbers as his reasoning, but not on the losing 2024 numbers. Again, the status quo leader won't admit that from 2020 to 2024 the Democrats lost 6,265,888 votes because they supported the unpopular Israeli onslaught on Gaza that took place every single day of 2024. ...

Yeah, the lack of support for Palestinians seemed to be a major issue for the Democrats in the 2024 election. Some of whom seemed to choose to sit out the election, instead of voting.

But some of those who did not vote, or who did cast a ballot for the alternative (a.k.a. Pres Trump) now seem to be regretting their vote, as Pres Trump seems to want to destroy the concept of a Palestine State.

So, a case of too little too late?


#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-15 02:39 AM

#5: Hi Lamplighter: In 2024, antiwar volunteers nationwide were angry over the immorality of bombing and blockading the Palestinians in Gaza with US economic aid and military supplies. Political recognition of Palestine as a state was their second immediate concern. First, stop the suffering.

So, the Kamala Harris alternatives for antiwar Democrats in 2024 were either Jill Stein or simply sitting out, like northern Democrats not choosing segregationist George Wallace or Republican Richard Nixon in 1968. The few crossovers from Democrats to Trumpf in 2024 were most likely from Jewish-Americans. Several months ago I posted the numbers in an OP for Drudge (or another platform). I know of one Jew who voted for the Dotard because "he would be better for Israel" and I suspect another who voted similarly (but I can't prove it).

Regardless if a Democrat or a Republican sits in the White House, the Palestinians are finished. Nearly 50,000 of them were killed under a Democratic administration. Asking whether an Arab-American regrets voting for Trumpf in 2024 is a red herring and a distraction because that vote would have changed absolutely nothing with the ruling Likud Party. Israel is responsible for the wanton carnage and misery in the Warsaw Ghetto of the Middle East (AKA the Gaza Strip) and both US parties are complicit. And for chutzpah, AIPAC and the Western MSM are appalled when the Palestinians fight back from annihilation, land seizures in the West Bank, or warrantless military detentions with the only tools and weapons at their disposal: guerilla tactics, abductions, knife attacks, or martyrdom operations.

#6 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-05-15 03:54 AM

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